There I was, right there, in between those grand wooden doors, Hogwarts. I couldn't believe I was finally back. And my best friend in the whole world was at the Gryffindor table for the sorting feast. Yes, I was in fact late, but I couldn't possibly get into trouble now could I?
But I must have jinxed myself. The potions master, Alabin Tartarus, was looking at me through the door to the Great Hall, mere feet away. It was a torrential downpour outside, and I was sopping wet. I was done for. Professor Tartarus never gave anyone mercy. I was about to get a detention every day of the week until Christmas.
"Miss Riddle, we were wondering when you would arrive," Professor Tartarus said in his monotone, yet eerie voice. "Now, what have you to say for yourself?"
"I was on the train, but one of the Slytherins…um… locked me the cart… and um… I had to find my wand in my luggage…" I was not supposed to tell why I was truly late, and I sucked at making up stories on the spot. This was a job for James.
"Well, this little made up story of yours is not going to get you out of detention is it, Miss Riddle?" the professor said. I was right, I was done for! The smile that spread across his tight, pale face proved right.
"It's alright, Alabin, she has an excuse. Come inside, Nickey," Headmistress McGonagall said and pointed to the Great Hall. As quickly as I could I walked in, not daring to glance back at the professors.
I rushed in, and with my clumsiness I stumbled, causing a crack to echo through the great, open hall. Everyone stopped eating to look at me. I glanced up at the four tables for each different house. At Hogwarts, there are four houses: Slytherin, the most cruel and evil witches and wizards; HufflePuff, the nice, smart, and caring witches and wizards; Ravenclaw, the friendly and strange witches and wizards; and finally, Gryffindor, the bravest, smartest, and most loyal witches and wizards.
Each head had turned to me, and at quick glance at the child nearest me, I realized I hadn't put my school robes on. Shit! I walked as fast as I possibly could. James gestured to me; he saved me a seat next to him.
"Thanks, James! Oh my, God! What did I miss so far?" I said, piling food after food onto my plate.
"Nothing much, but we did get a few more first years!" he said in his beautiful accent. Hogwarts is in England. I'm from America, actually the only Hogwarts witch from there! "And where have you been!"
I hit him on the arm, and he yelped as the result. I looked around, and finding no one listening or looking, I whispered, "I'll tell you in the common room."
He nodded, and we chatted about what we did over the summer holiday, or summer vacation. Hogwarts has different dorm rooms, or dormitories, for each house. None of the other houses know where the entrances to the other houses' dorms are. Gryffindor's entrance is behind a painting of a fat lady who has a password to be opened.
The dinner food suddenly disappeared to reveal tarts, cakes, and sweets. I went to grab a tart towards me and my hand found James'. I pulled away quickly.
"No, you have it. I'm too full any way," James said, sitting back.
"Ah, no you have it. You went for it first," I said, shoving the tart at him.
"Alright, we'll both have it." James snapped the tart in half and gave me a piece. It was a good thing he had only given me half, since I could barely eat it. Stuffed and happy, I talked to James.
"So, how's the famous dad?" I asked, remembering that when we first met, he told about the cool things his father had done. I am a Muggle-born, but the Slytherins use the swear-like term: Mudblood. James is a pureblood, or born from two magical parents. His father is extremely famous in the wizarding world, causing the Potter children to be popular at Hogwarts.
Harry Potter is James' dad. If you know his stories, great, but if you don't, prepare for the epic tasks I'm about to tell you. When Harry was a baby, this horrible, cruel murder of a Dark wizard named Lord Voldemort attempted to kill him, but he survived and brought evil down. Then, in his first year at Hogwarts, Harry destroyed Voldemort yet again. In his second year, Harry destroyed a Horcrux, an object that held a piece of Voldemort's soul, and a giant snake called a Basilisk that kills with a glance to the eyes. In Harry's third year, he could produce a full Patronus Charm and found his long lost Godfather, Sirius, whom James is named after. In his fourth year, Harry escaped the new and reformed Voldemort again. In his fifth year, Harry fought against Voldemort and lost his Godfather. In his sixth year at Hogwarts, Harry learned as much about Voldemort as he could and plotted to destroy him after his followers, Death Eaters, killed the headmaster, Albus Dumbledore. In what would have been his seventh year, Harry finally killed off Voldemort for good.
"Oh, Nickey," James smirked, "Do I have to say!" We both laughed. The desserts had disappeared, and Headmistress McGonagall spoke to the entire hall.
"We welcome our newest students to Hogwarts and welcome back our previous. As I remind you, the Forbidden Forest is, as its name states, forbidden. And Mr. Filch would like me to remind you, yet again, that magic is not allowed within the corridors between classes. I believe that is all. Prefects, please lead your houses to their common rooms."
Everyone at the table got up."Follow me, first years!" cried Luis Weasley, the youngest of the three children to Bill and Fleur Weasley. Bill is brothers to Ron Weasley who married Hermione Granger. Both were good friends with Harry, and Ron's sister married Harry. Their children are younger than me and James. Rose, the oldest, is actually the same age as James' younger brother, Albus.
We followed Luis up the flight of stairs to the second floor. We were walking along a very long corridor when someone grabbed my arm. James tugged at my sleeve, which I still hadn't changed out of. I turned to him, and he whispered in my ear, "Wanna prank some Slytherins?" I nodded, and his hand found mine.
We walked down a bit further along the hallway. James turned to the wall and pulled a piece of paper, parchment, out. It was blank. "James, can I do it this time!" I said, loving this idea very, very much.
"Sure." and he handed over the parchment.
"I solemnly swear I am up to no good." The paper immediately turned into a splitting image of Hogwarts with tiny dots, indicating who each person was and where. The Maurader's Map also had hidden passages that not even the headmistress knew about.
"Let's go down this hallway," James said, pointing to the passage just beyond the tapestry in front of us.
"Did you do this on purpose, James Sirius?"I asked.
He just smirked and disappeared behind the tapestry. I shook my head and smiled. Looking back over each shoulder, I crept after James. But apparently he stood just inches from the back side of the carpet because I walked right into him, resulting with both of us the floor.
"What's wrong? Why did you stop?" I asked, after igniting my wand. The passage was dark and spooky. Just the way James and I like it.
"Scorpius isn't in the common room," James said, shoving the map under the light at the tip of my wand.
"What! What's he doing out and about?" I said in disbelief. Yet, something tugged inside me that he breed of family wasn't the best to hang with.
"Well, his father did try to kill the previous headmaster and my dad," James said, looking up from the map. "He could be learning from him."
"Yeah, just keep an eye on him," I said, waving my wand and the light at the tip traveled down the passage to illuminate further down. We walked in silence. The passage led almost to the Slytherin common room in the dungeons.
"Do you have the Invisibility Cloak?" I asked as we reached the end of the hallway.
"Yup. Right here," he said, pulling out the watery, silky cloak. This cloak has been past down from father to son for generations in the Potter family, and is one part of the three Deathly Hallows. It is like holding air, and is very useful.
"Here," James said, s topping me and flung the cloak over the both of us. "Ready?"
"Totally."
We snuck out of the knight in the dungeons and walked down the hallway to the Slytherin entrance. We arrived at the entrance to the common room, but we did not know the password, nor our own for Gryffindor.
"Check to see if anyone's coming," I whispered, pointing with my free hand at the map.
"What, Scorpius is coming? He was just on the third floor!" James whispered in shock.
Light foots steps banged against the walls. I jumped, forgetting that I couldn't be seen while underneath the cloak. James stood perfectly still. I could hear his breathing over the footsteps. Scorpius appeared, and he looked a mess. His green and blue robes were torn, and he had a deep scratch on his cheek. What really caught me was that he looked really pissed. Scorpius is usually pissed, but this was more anger, more determination.
"Bellatrix Lestrange!" belted Scorpius. And the entrance revealed itself. James and I slipped past Scorpius just in time before the entrance closed again. A group of fourth years were discussing the works of Lord Voldemort and how a Horcrux worked. They were so into the topic, they had never realized that James and I walked up to a chair with a dark haired girl sitting on it and yanked it hard from the table. She screeched and landed on the stone, cold floor.
"What, what happened?" she asked shaken up.
"Are you ok, Hannah?" a blonde haired boy raced over from across the table to help her up.
"Your chair! It just, like, flung backwards!" someone from the table exclaimed.
"James, we better gotta of here. They might find out it was us," I whispered into his ear.
"Yeah, let's go." We walked quickly and quietly to the door. But Scorpius decided to walk to the dormitories instead of taking part of the Horcrux discussion, and his foot brushed the Cloak. The Cloak slipped off James and I. Everyone in the common room screamed in outrage.
"Gryffindors!"
"Get them!"
"Run!" James shouted, as he grabbed the Cloak, and ran for the door. We sprinted to the hidden passage, and one again, disappeared inside. Panting and listening for following Slytherins, we stood up against the damp, ice-cold wall. My hand still clutched my illuminated wand. When no footsteps were heard I said, "Did you see her face!"
We both fell, laughing so hard we might as well peed our pants. It was near eleven that evening when we finally reached the Fat Lady.
"Password?" she asked, looking pretty angry. We both looked at each other. We had not bothered to find out what the password was before we took our detour.
"Babbittey Rabbittey," said a much too familiar voice behind us. James and I turned slowly. Luis was standing cross-armed up against the staircase. "Where have you two been?"
"The kitchens!" James said immediately. When Luis gave a puzzled look, he continued, "to see the house-elves. You know they make all the food, and do all the cleaning at Hogwarts. We thought we would thank them for their great work thus far." Damn! Why is he so good at this!
"You were thanking the house-elves? Fine, go straight to your dormitories. The term starts in the morning." The Fat Lady had swung open. James and I walked-ran to the staircases to the separate dorms for the boys and girls.
"See you at breakfast," James shouted before ascending the staircase to the tower.
"See ya," I said, descending into the girls' dorms.
Breakfast consisted of Rose constantly nagging us if James or I had ever taken Muggle Studies or other classes that seemed unnecessary. Our Head of the House, Professor Solomon, and Transfiguration Master handed out Gryffindor's schedules. James and I had the same schedule except for the first period that day: I had Divinatition with Professor Trelawney, and James had a free period.
"So, what were gonna say to me at the common room last night?" James asked, after looking over his schedule.
I looked around before speaking, "I have been sent on a mission by Professor McGonagall."
"What?"
"Yeah, apparently an object has been stolen from Hogwarts! A Dark object!"
"What's the object?"
"I have no clue, but she said I would know by Christmas. Hopefully, I won't die by then."
The morning mail came, and a bright white snowy owl landed in front of James with an issue of the Daily Prophet, the wizarding world's biggest newspaper industry.
"Thanks, Arizon," James said as he pried the paper from the out-stretched foot of the owl. He unraveled the newspaper, and gave Arizon a piece of his bacon. The owl took off while James laid the paper across the table.
"Oh, look! Azkaban has a new prisoner, Marcus Atoiney," I said pointing to the article with a picture of man in chains screaming and shaking the chains. In the wizarding world all pictures move, so this prisoner, Marcus, was very intimidating. "Hmm, it says here that he murdered a Muggle."
"Oh, who?"
"Umm, Mary-Anne Steinfeld. What!"
"What?" James asked, looking a little nervous.
"She was my next-door neighbor!"
"It was coincidence?"
"I don't think so, James. Remember why I was late to Hogwarts! This was no coincidence!" I said, wrapping up the Daily Prophet. Right then the bell rang for the start of school.
"Well, see you second period," James said, heading for the common room. I walked up to the highest tower where Divination classes were held. The ladder that was normally hanging in the middle of the room wasn't there. The tiny room was already filling with people.
"Anyone seen, Professor Trelawney, yet?" someone asked in the back of the room.
Then the ladder came crashing down on a few kids in front of me. Some kids screamed back up the ladder, but I just walked passed them and up the ladder. The room was dark and reeked of the worst smelling perfume. It was way too warm, as it was the beginning of September, and the Professor had a fire burning at the front of the room. I took a seat at the back table where I could dash out of the room faster at the end of the period.
Everyone had settled, and still no sign of Trelawney. "Welcome, class" a voice came from right behind me. It was held out long and immediately caused me to yawn. "We will be reviewing seeing your partner's future through the crystal ball! Begin!"
My partner was Lysander Scamander, son of Luna Lovegood and Rolf Scamander. This class Gryffindor shared with the Ravenclaw students.
"You can go first while i warm up my Inner Eye," Lysander said, pushing the crystal ball across the table towards me.
"No thanks. I usually make up crap for this class. It's a joke!" I said pushing, it back at him.
"No, I my Inner Eye isn't ready yet!" Lysander said, pushing the ball back at me.
"Miss Riddle, may I read your future?" Professor Trelawney said, and I could feel the whole class's eyes upon me.
"Sure," I said, slumping back in my seat. Professor Trelawney is practically a fraud at predicting the future, and she is an extremely awkward person to be around.
"I see that you have a task! A dangerous task!" she cried out.
I gave a nervous giggle, "I don't have a task."
"Oh, but you do! The crystal ball says you have a dangerous task to fulfill," Professor Trelawney said, waving her many beaded shawls in the air.
"No, I don't. I would think that if I was assigned a task, I would know about it," I said getting a bit agitated. "This is ridiculous!"
"Nickey, are you sure you don't have a task," said Lily.
"Yes, Lily, if you don't believe me ask your brother," I snapped at her, and she quieted away.
"Well, you have a task at some point in your future that you need to prepare for!" and with that Professor Trelawney went to another group.
"She's right you know. It does say you have a task," Lysander said, looking up at me from the ball. "And by the looks of it, you have already been assigned it."
"If I want my future told, I will go down to Professor Firenze," I said, trying to avoid a nasty fight that would come if provoked.
"Whatever," Lysander said, looking back into the crystal ball.
Second period couldn't come any faster. James was waiting for me at the entrance to the dungeons, where our Potions class was held. Besides Divination, Potions was the worst class.
"So, how was Divination?" James asked, as we descended the stairs.
"Professor Trelawney predicted something true this time!" I said, looking at James.
The surprise that had been on my face less than two hours earlier was now on his, "WHAT!"
"Yeah, she saw my task," I said, continuing down the hallway.
This period was brought to its all time low when we arrived at the doors to the classroom. We had this class with the Slytherins!
"Oh, look! Here comes the cutest couple around!" cried Scorpius, his group of evil friends behind him.
"You're only jealous because you know that you'll die alone," I said, glaring at him over my stack of books.
"Did anyone here anything? They must be under the Cloak!" Scorpius said, and only a selected few laughed.
"Very mature, Scorpius!" I said, and turned to James.
"So, yeah, I don't think we should talk about this until we are really alone," I said, looking all around. The doors to the Potions class opened, and Professor Tartarus stepped aside.
"Oh, great! Here we go now!" James whispered in my ear, and he walked into the classroom. I smiled and followed after him. We sat one at the bench near the middle.
Professor Tartarus took attendance, and proceeded with his usual long, boring rules and regulations speech. It was about twenty minutes into the speech when James leaned close to me and whispered, "I think we figure out what this object is before we off searching for it."
"Is there something you would like to say, Mr. Potter?" Professor Tartarus said.
"Yes, there is," James said, turning to the professor. "We go through this speech every year! Don't you think we all know it by heart now?"
"Does anybody else think that?" Professor Tartarus said, looking around the room. Over a dozen hands went up for Gryffindor, and surprisingly, a few from Slytherin. "If you think that then, you can get started on a paper of wolfslang skin due tomorrow." He marched out of the room and into his office. Everyone was glaring at James, but he didn't care.
"C'mon. I got us time," he said, piling everything into his bag. He rushed to the door, and followed.
"Where are we going?" I asked, fumbling with some books.
"To the library, I know it's not where I would normally go, but this is important," He said, catching a book that was falling from my pile.
"Ok, to the library!"
"Tell me again what Professor McGonagall said," James said, pouring over a book called Hogwarts, a History by Bathilda Bagshot.
"She said, 'A dark object has been stolen, Nickey, and the prophecy said that you were to find it. This object, it has been in Hogwarts for twenty-two years, and has never left since. You must find it and return it.' I don't know what this object looked like, but it was here when your dad fought Voldemort," I said, recalling what I was told over the summer.
"Well, what dark object could have been kept at Hogwarts after my father killed the Dark Lord?"
We thought for awhile, recalling Horcruxes and dark objects. Nothing had come to mind. Many questions had run through my mind. Why would someone want an object from Hogwarts? Who would take an object from Hogwarts? How did they get it? And what were their intentions with the object?
"What if we're thinking in the wrong spot?" I asked.
"What do you mean?" James asked, as he looked up from another book, Harry Potter and his Mission to Defeat the Dark Lord by Lavender Brown.
"What if we need to find out who took the object? That would make things easier to find out what type of object we are dealing with."
"Why didn't I think of that!" cried James, and the librarian, Madame Pince scowled at him.
"Yeah, well, we still haven't got an idea of who, though," I said, closing one of the many open books in front of us.
Then Professor Tartarus came into the library. I caught sight of him, and elbowed James. "Let's get out of here!" James whispered, and we grabbed our school books and snuck behind a bookcase. The professor went up to Madame Pince's desk. They talked for a bit, and then, Madame Pince led Professor Tartarus to where we were seconds before. They had their backs to us. It was our only opportunity to make a break for it.
Then I felt a light, silky material brush my arm. I turned around, and James through the Invisibility Cloak over the both of us. We ran for the door and bolted to the dungeons, where we took off the Cloak right outside the classroom. James tucked the Cloak in his bag, and we walked calmly into the class. As soon as I sat down I pulled out parchment, and immediately began writing. I was half done when Professor Tartarus came back into the class, scowling under his breath. He looked up and saw us.
He stormed at us, "Where have you been!"
"We went to get parchment," James said, not even looking up at the professor.
"Then why did Madame Pince say she saw you up in the library!" He was pointing at me.
"Because we went... ah see if she had any leftover parchment," I said, glancing at the professor. His face was stern, and his eyes seemed to knit together into one.
"WELL...!" but he never finished. The bell had rung, and students were rushing to get out of the classroom. I got up and practically ran for the door. I waited for James in the courtyard.
"Wow, we just missed detention until Christmas," James said, as he approached me. We walked to our next class, Care of Magical Creatures. This class is outside the castle of Hogwarts, as to be of convenience to the creatures.
"Well, our luck is changing. Maybe we will find out who stole the object!" I said, as we walked down the hill to the cabin at the edge of the Forbidden Forest.
"Yeah, hopefully," James said, sounding as if he was a deep thought.
The teacher of the Care of Magical Creatures is an old friend of James' dad, Rubeus Hagrid. This man is half giant, half wizard. He, also, has this over excessive love for magical creatures ranging from giant spiders called Acromantula to unicorns.
"There you two are," Hagrid said as we approached. "As I was saying, today we will be learning about Thestrals."
"What are Thestrals?" I whispered to James, who looked kinda scared.
"They're these reptile-horse-things. You can only see them if you seen death," James whispered back.
I took a huge sigh of relief. I had never seen the death of anything. I was good to go. Hagrid walked us a little distance into the Forbidden Forest, and stopped. Right in front of us were five reptilian horses that were so emaciated they looked like skeletons. I gasped and held on to James' upper arm. He looked at me.
"What?"
"I can see them."
"What! I thought you said you've never seen death!" James said kinda loud. Some of the Hufflepuffs were risking side glances at us.
"I thought I did never see death!" I whispered, as one of the Thestrals walked toward me. I backed up as it came in almost touching distance.
"It's alright Nickey. He won't eat ya!" Hagrid said, from the other of the clearing. I didn't really trust Hagrid's judgment. James' dad was always saying how he kept getting them in and out of trouble. I had probably taking a good ten steps back, before I realized everyone was looking confused and searching the forest line for the Thestrals. James was just looking at me.
"Why do you keep backing up?" he asked and walked right into the Thestral. "What the…"
"That would be the Thestral you just walked into," I said, freaking out a little. The creature had me pinned up against a large tree. It was still coming closer. I closed my eyes, hoping it wouldn't eat me. I felt a nudge at my pocket. I opened one eye. The Thestral was trying to eat my pocket.
"HEY! Stop that!" I said, pulling my pocket away from him. He nudged me harder, pushing me into the tree. "OW!"
James had now known where the Thestral was, and slapped in hard with his palm. The creature made a very bloodcurdling screech, and turned to face James.